crinkly cruiser

Whoops missed this image

We can trump that, this is Madagascar Hell!

22 hours ago, Belfastman said:

It will be interesting to see how many staff Philip takes with him to his new ship.

Do we know where Phillip is going?

We are on the following cruise and were told it is a private hire.

All we can say is God speed you José, and thank you so much for making the Quest feel so much like home for us.

We can only hope that we meet again, some place, sometime; maybe even "somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean" 😉

Pura Vida José

Love Cheryl & John

PS Don't take the keys with you!

Hi Jo-b. No, that is not usual, although he did tell me that he has recently been spending some time with the CEO Larry Pimental. I would re-send the email.

I agree with UK Tog, one should always go through Kansas first, indeed we have to do so, since as far as I am aware that is the only channel through which we can book an Azamara cruise.

Our understanding of the present situation is that Guatemala is still being used to handle the flight bookings. When our TA rang Barbie in Kansas, he was told that her Azamara reservations team were operating within the Celebrity head office building. However, after a 40-minute phone call, she suggested that he should await a ring back from her because Guatemala still handles all aspects of the flights; this took some time because the Kansas/Guatemala conduit is via reciprocal emails!

In an ideal world Richard's team would be augmented to the required strength and handed the task of completing all aspects of UK and Ireland client’s reservations. Not an unreasonable suggestion given that as Richard states, 25% of Azamara’s clients come from our area. Ref https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5uaOTZT2H24

We can now look forward to our Baltic cruise, and to our Dubai-Mumbai Christmas cruise on the Quest, a voyage for which our timescales allow us to book our Emirates flights independently, Hallelujah! 🤸‍♂️🤸‍♂️🤸‍♂️

May I take this opportunity to encourage any UK Az cruisers who encounter the customary ‘no-can do’ attitude of the Az Kansas operation, to get in touch with Richard Twynam and his team at their corporate head office in Weybridge.

Living on the Isle of Man, we try to avoid the inconvenience of having to spend extra days on the mainland in order to ensure that we can make all our connections. Having booked our June Baltic fly/cruise on the Journey, our TA attempted to re-arrange Az’s proposed flights to allow suitable connections to the IoM, these being; out to Stockholm from Manchester and returning from Oslo into Dublin. He forwarded this brief summary of Az Kansas eventual response.

1.      They can’t book flights which operate into Dublin, so it’s not possible for them to book out of Manchester and into Dublin.  They said this was due to them not having a contract for this.

2.      They also don’t have a contract for booking the SAS Plus product or Business Class.

3.      It is possible for Azamara to book your outward flight to Stockholm but for you to book your own inbound flight, although there is no reduction in cost.

Subsequent to this, they informed our TA that they could up-grade us to SAS Plus (Business class not being available on these flights), but at an additional cost of £362.64 per person (on SAS’s web page, this up-grade costs £54/person!)

I contacted Richard Twynam who within a few days, had sorted out every aspect of our flights exactly in line with what we wanted, including the up-grades at £54!

This forum contains numerous posting relating to the complications encountered when attempting to reach satisfactory conclusions to various issues with Az’s shore-side teams, but I trust that the above might prompt UK based cruisers experiencing difficulties, to contact Richard Twynam rtwynam@azamara.com, we feel sure that he and his team will be only too happy to try to bring a satisfactory conclusion to your concerns.

It could also be a private charter between those dates.

I have to say that Azamara would be well advised to slate the Christmas cruise and first cruise of a new year at the same time in order to book the seasons back to back. We booked Christmas 2019 Dubai to Mumbai on the Quest and waited until the 2020 cruises were slated, hoping that it would circumnavigate India. However, it now transpires that it is heading for Capetown with way too many sea days, so we are going Tiger shooting (with cameras!)

This Wednesday here on the Isle of Man we hope to:cool::cool: see Captain Carl sail the Pursuit into Douglas Bay, his home port, on its way to Southampton. God speed Carl.:cool::cool: :cool::cool:

We have told everyOfficer we have spoken to, that the land based facet of AZ's operation isdreadful, but the on-board experience exceeds all other cruise lines we have eversailed with, including Silverseas & Seabourne. We now have a wonderful TA who endures all the inefficiencies oftheir office staff, and ensures that the only thing we have to do is to join the ship and enjoythe best cruise experience on the high seas. :cool: